In an era, where debut EPs where the staple for introducing breakout artists, Fireboy DML did the unprecedented and released his debut album – Laughter, Tears & Goosebumps. The rest, they say is history.
In the ensuing years, Fireboy would take gradual, but significant steps to cement his place as the foremost star and leader of the new generation of genre-bending stars. In the wake of the peak of Peru’s immense crossover success, Fireboy had started to operate in the strata of superstars. He made history as the first Afrobeats act to perform at the BET awards mainstage and the Wembley stadium (courtesy of Ed Sheeran) in the space of one week. Whilst his peers were opting for the 5K capacity of the O2 Brixton, Fireboy would cap off a successful 2022 by selling out the 12.5K capacity of the OVO arena. Things were really looking up for him.
His 2 studio albums were already certified classics and he was on the cusp of completing a trifecta with his third studio album, Playboy. However, things would start to get a bit rocky for the young star and undeservedly so. Playboy might not have been up to the standards, Fireboy had set for himself on LTG and Apollo—but he clearly wasn’t curating the album to a similar purpose. Before the album dropped, Fireboy said it would he his most commercial album and it made sense to capitalize on the new wave of stardom Peru had shot him into. The music that mindset resulted in just didn’t connect with most.
Some people said the playboy brand wasn’t resonating, as convincingly well as his wide-eyed loverboy era of LTG. Some people said the quality of the writing dropped, as a result of the album’s mainstream direction. Whatever the complaint was, the general consensus was that the music wasn’t as good, despite the LP housing Fireboy’s biggest hits. Then in 2023, Fireboy would have a drought of hits for the first time in 4 years—leading to outrageous claims of him “falling off.” In reality, that was never true because the music was still good and getting good numbers.
The brand perception and music just wasn’t resonating on the level it should and Fireboy understood this and the gravity of his next album in rectifying that. Despite the fact that he had amassed a strong following in his 4 years of great form, he understood the consequence of another drought year. So what did he do? He returned to the very essence of Fireboy, dug deep and produced an album that’s on par with his best album.
Fireboy understood the problem of resonance and the fact that the music wasn’t connecting with how he was perceived. The problem was that the wide-eyed loverboy on LTG and brooding, introspective recluse on Apollo was long gone and was no more. So he couldn’t simply revert time to a phase of his career that was beloved, because then it wouldn’t be genuine and would be cosplay. The new songs he was making weren’t aligning with the previous eras. People loved Fireboy for his honesty and how he anchored himself in his music. So what did he do?
Fireboy went across all his albums, picking the best elements of each and merging them into a foundation for this new persona of his. He took notable elements of the swooning on LTG, that emphasized his starry eyed view of love. He took the brutal honesty and vulnerability of Apollo on a thematic standpoint and the cohesion on a sonic level. And he also recognized the need to have multiple potential hits—like Playboy did—on the album to preserve its social currency.
At face value, it might seem he simply dialed time back to the naive, loverboy era of his opening years and whilst adedamola has striking similarities with LTG’s thematic direction in the sense of both albums putting love, front right and center—there is a marked difference as to how Fireboy approaches love on this album, in comparison to LTG.
For one, he’s not naïve anymore and seems more assured in himself. When he’s professing love and yearning for affection, it isn’t from that place of helpless adulation and overt intensity. There is no example that buttresses this mentality shift, better than the fact that he went from a headspace of Need You on his debut album to need me on adedamola. Both are emotive, RnB cuts but the latter is coming from a man who knows he’s the prize as a rich and famous superstar. Someone who wouldn’t let himself be trifled with despite being a loverboy.
Yes, he’s singing “Anytime you need me, baby I’ll be there” and emphasizing his love but he’s not begging for love or professing that he needs his lover more. Same goes for call me yet another emotive RnB cut with softer log drums and a perfect segue that precedes it from obaa sima. Fireboy always sounds assured and his yearning is the farthest thing from being needy or intense, despite being deep.
“We won’t be here forever, so love me now or never baby” he sings on obaa sima, giving his love interest an ultimatum that’s in line with his new mentality. It’s either she loves him the right way, or he leaves her altogether because he wouldn’t tolerate substandard love. This single deserved way more success than it got, as it’s one of the more soulful Amapiano fusion songs 2023 produced but for some reason, it went under the radar. On everyday—the best single, built on the crux of a new wave of African percussion that has become a mainstay in the industry as of late—Fireboy does tell his lover not to leave him, but it’s a braggadocious record of how much he can back up his loving with acts of service, so it doesn’t come off as needy.
The album is populated with love songs, but Fireboy always sounds assured in his own skin like a star not willing to compromise past his bandwidth or make inordinate sacrifices just for love. It’s why he is telling a past lover on hell and back that he can see through her shenanigans and wouldn’t be taking her back, despite her rueful antics. The beats here are so culturally visceral, that it gives off the vibe of live drums and the ever present saxophone riffs across the LP—elevates the song. And Fireboy himself doesn’t disappoint in his writing or delivery.
It’s crucial to note, that Fireboy’s pen is sharper than ever and the writing here is as good as Apollo’s, which is arguably the best written Afrobeat album of the 2020s. The only reason Apollo might edge it is because it has a more expansive thematic scope of self-discovery, isolation and paying the steep price of being a superstar, whilst adedamola is mostly love and loss. However, for what it is—the writing couldn’t be better.
After telling off a spiteful lover on hell and back, he’s admitting that love is letting go alongside Lojay. Years back in his LTG era, he’ll have been more inclined to compromising and finding a middle ground, but now he’s open to letting go. Both artists prove why they’re two of the best writers of their generations and trade heartfelt lyrics back and forth, seamlessly and if not for their differing vocal textures, it would be very hard to tell them apart because the passion and quality in the delivery and writing, respectively—is so perfectly balanced. It’s no wonder they’ve become good friends and are now working on a joint EP together.
ready acts as the album interlude and it has the most moody and somber ambience on the LP, courtesy of Jon Batiste’s piano and Fireboy unleashing the full powers of his vocal range and hitting the falsetto a couple of times. It’s so emotionally charged and resounding that it moved this writer to tears and would most likely stir up goosebumps at least, in the average listener. The song is also the closest thing Fireboy sounds to being defeated on the album, which is a stark difference to how confident he sounds on most of the album. But it makes sense. Even the most confident of people have their low moments. It’s what makes us humane and makes characterization resonant. If he was confident all the time, it might be difficult to root for him because he’s perfect and no one is.
On the more upbeat part of things, we have songs like iseoluwa, ecstasy ft. Seun Kuti, back n forth ft. Lagbaja, wande’s bop and change your life. This is where the album truly comes alive with energy and also the sentiment that results in some of its best tracks. iseoluwa and back n forth are on the more cultural spectrum of things, with talking drums and relentless jazz horns, that makes you believe the saxophone itself is a featured artist across the entire album. The former features peerless writing about beating the odds and rising above tribulation, and the latter song is a more celebratory record of love—where Fire and Lagbaja, who brings his dynamism through his vocals and instrumentation—urge their love interests to match their desire, as its the one true way real love will blossom.
ecstasy ft. Seun Kuti is a fan favorite and for good reason. It’s the most sensual song on the LP, with writing that paints a vivid image of two lovers burning over for each other with flames of passion. It’s also one of the best written songs on the LP and when you realize that Olamide—who also AnR’d the LP—lent his pen on the song too, it makes a lot of sense. Seun Kuti’s horns aren’t as dominant as Lagbaja’s on back n forth, but it’s more suitable to the intimate nature of the record.
wande’s bop ft. Spinall was borne out of the same headspace that created Peru, Fireboy’s biggest song till date. The artist has cited Wande Coal as one of the trio of artists (the other two being Jon Bellion and Passenger – foreign artists) who inspire his music, so it’s always fun to see him give his best impression of Wande Coal on beats tailor made for such. And this song is an indeed stronger impression of Wande Coal than Peru. Almost everything to the vocal textures, the topical matter and the repetitive use of “ladies” and even the adlibs scream Wande Coal, whereas on Peru—it was only Wande’s vocal texture that was adopted. This one is for the clubs and with the right push, it could become hit material.
change your life is the best song on the LP. It is simply refined musicality at its finest. The song unleashes African percussion on a funk template and incorporates Fela’s-esque Afrobeat trumpet horns, setting the stage for Fireboy to deploy a variety of R&B and pop inflected deliveries that suits it to a tee. He might as well be singing about eating a banana and the song would still be phenomenal. The musicality is that stellar. Semzi ‘semzbond’ and Bassiqally take a goddamn bow. The production quality is simply out of this world.
Bassiqally and Nxrth have combined production credits of thirteen tracks on the LP, and they’re relatively emerging producers/sound engineers on the scene (Nxrth being Fireboy’s younger brother.) It’s nice to see Fireboy following in the footsteps of his label boss, Olamide who has spotlighted a countless number of new producers on several of his albums (Semzi on Ikigai, P.prime on Carpe Diem, Eskeez on UY Scuti) and label mate, Asake (Magicsticks on MMWTV.) The synergy between Fireboy and this duo was pivotal to making this album cohesive and wholesome as a body of work. It’s a synergy that’s lacking on Playboy, as one too many producers worked on that album.
Now to the hard discussion of where adedamola stands in Fireboy’s discography. This writer sides with the growing consensus that it tops LTG, Fireboy’s undeniable classic. It hits a similar peak and has a higher low. The worst song on here is most definitely better than Omo Ologo or High On Life. Moreso, it’s more sonically cohesive than LTG and has a more matured and expansive take on love and relationships. The production and sound engineering quality is also better and the writing is streets ahead of LTG. The only Fireboy album that stands with adedamola is Apollo, which slightly edges it by having a much darker and complex tone, that’s harder to execute.
However, adedamola is clearly not trying to be as introspectively nuanced as Apollo and is only a sonic collage of all the best elements that makes Fireboy, Fireboy. And this is also why, the album is so aptly titled after his first name. This is simply Fireboy in the peak of his powers, making the sort of music he does best. Even if you refuse to accept that adedamola is only behind Apollo in Fireboy’s discography, we can all agree that Fireboy not only has the best catalogue amongst his peers, but has a discography that will stand with all-time greats.
It is a beautiful thing to see him bounce back from a place, where many had started to write him off. Of course, it is almost like a rite of passage for every great artist to have their ‘drought’ year and have the odds stacked against them. It’s from that place of despair that the impeccably written and honest, yawa stems from. Fireboy disclosed to Apple Music, that he’s not usually one to gloat but he felt like he had a lot to get off his chest with that record, before eventually going on to find the strength to fight back. And boy, did he on this LP.
He also proves an important point on this album, that other artists could learn from. You needn’t reinvent the wheel or force experimentation, when you can just take your sound to new places and evolve it in meaningful ways. This is the album to beat in 2024 and definitely album of the year, so far.
Kudos to anyone who will attempt to top this. You have your work cut out for you.
Final Verdict:
Sonic Cohesion & Unharried Transitions: 1.7/2
Expansive Production: 1.6/2
Songwriting: 2/2
Delivery: 2/2
Optimal Track Sequencing/Topical Progression: 1.7/2
Total: 9.0/10.
